Ukraine parliament features brawls, boxer, and naked protesters

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Think the fiscal cliff talks in the United States are tough? Ukraine’s parliament has been engaged in two days of all-out brawls, which have also featured a boxing champ and naked protesters.

Verkhovna Rada, Parliament of Ukraine

A pro wrestling style fight started on Wednesday between members of President Viktor Yanukovych’s party and the opposition in parliament. It continued on Thursday as two men tried to change their party affiliation.

Pro boxer Vitali Klitschko made a cameo appearance on camera on Wednesday, and security forces had to divert naked women from storming the House floor.

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, the leader of the main opposition party, is a woman, and she is currently jailed after losing the 2010 election to Yanukovych.

The protesters were members of the group Femen, and they were arrested after they stripped off their clothes in below-freezing weather and charged the parliament building.

Images from Wednesday and Thursday showed a scene that resembled a WWE pay-per-view event, with parliament members using full nelsons, choke holds and other moves familiar to American wrestling fans.

The biggest brawl in Congressional history took place in 1958, when 50 members of the House of Representatives fought on the floor, after a debate about admitting Kansas as a free state became violent.

That fight ended when two brawlers ripped the wig of the head of a representative from Mississippi, which startled the fighting politicians.

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